Happy New Year!
One of the many observations that struck us upon our return to the USA was the beautiful fall colors -- something we did not see much in Shanghai. Peggy took the banner picture (above) just outside the front door of our new home in Newark, California. We have a new appreciation for these vivid red and orange colors against clear blue skies. Of course, we had also forgotten about the accompanying noisy leaf blowers and recycling trucks that come to pick up the leaves ... very annoying! In China, they sweep up leaves with a broom and cart them away on three-wheeled bicycles.
Around our New Home
Speaking of clear skies, we arose at 4:00 AM on December 10th to witness the total lunar eclipse from the shores of the San Francisco Bay at Coyote Hills. A lunar eclipse occurs when the moon passes through the earth's shadow. This rare perfect alignment of three bodies - moon, earth, sun - will not happen again until April 2014. The eclipse does not turn totally dark due to refracted sunlight passing through earth's atmosphere, causing a red-orange hue. Check this out for yourself in Peggy's Photography Collection.
We've got more pictures for you taken around the lake at our house where we take frequent strolls. Not quite the same to walk without our dogs, Sarha and Dami, but still a pretty neighborhood with friendly people.
13th Anniversary
Our web site is thirteen years old this month! When digging through our boxes from storage, we came across a hard copy of our very first home page published on January 3, 1999. This was before the existence of blogs, Facebook and Twitter, and so it was a little ahead of it's time. We've added more to the site every month for the past thirteen years and it has now accumulated over 800 pages!
The Woman Who Could Not Forget
Here's a picture of us with the parents of Iris Chang. When we arrived in China several years ago, we read Iris Chang's best-selling book, The Rape of Nanking. It opened our eyes to this "second Holocast" that our World War II history books seem to have forgotten. Steve was in Nanking (now known as Nanjing) to witness the moving memorials on the 70th anniversary of the Japanese invasion. We wanted to read so much more from Iris Chang but tragically she committed suicide at the young age of 36. With all the ensuing speculation and conspiracy theories, her mother Ying-Ying decided to set the record straight by telling the whole story of Iris' life in a biographical memoir, The Woman Who Could Not Forget. Ying-Ying and her husband, Shau-Jin, now live in the Bay Area and we were thrilled to have the opportunity to meet them personally and talk about the fascinating and meaningful life of their daughter, Iris Chang.
Kristie Lu Stout
We were also delighted to meet Kristie Lu Stout, CNN International Anchor and Correspondent, based in Hong Kong. We feel like Kristie Lu is a long-time friend, having watched her on TV nearly every day on CNNi while we were overseas the past seven years. (And we are disappointed that we cannot get CNNi -- or any other decent international news stations, for that matter -- in our over 500 channels of TV in the USA.) Anyway, we could not pass up the opportunity to see Kristie Lu in person when she gave a seminar at the Stanford Graduate School of Business. Kristie is also a Stanford Alum.
Holidays in Montana
Steve made a trip to Montana over the holidays and especially enjoyed spending some time with Dad. Gerry treated the family to a great dinner at the Nite Owl in Columbia Falls and we clicked the picture below on Steve's iPhone.
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Mayor David W. Smith
December was a milestone month for our friend and neighbor, Dave Smith, as he announced the end of his 33-year tenure as Mayor of the city of Newark. That makes him the second-longest serving mayor in the nation. Yowza! We attended a dedication ceremony for Dave hosted by the Lake Area residents. Pictured on the left, you can see Dave speaking at the ceremony beside his memorial boulder, plaque and tree grove constructed at the lake cove near our house.
And speaking of stone memorials, it's been there for a few years, but this was our first chance to actually see our own paving stone at the Ohlone College Newark Center for Health Sciences and Technology (see photo below). We proud to have supported the construction of this eco-friendly campus -- the first "green" community college campus in the nation. And we were delighted to discover the very large paving stone engraved with our name and favorite quotation prominently displayed at the entrance to this beautiful new campus. We hope it inspires future science and technology students to "explore, dream and discover."
Recent Photo Additions
You can see all our pictures in our online photo album or check out the latest additions by clicking on the links below:
•Our Shanghai family
• Our last week in Shanghai
• Moving-in to new USA home
• Dad O in the newspaper
• Tiffany & Joey's wedding
• Peggy in Montana
• Peggy's Mom & Dad
• Peggy's photography album
• Miscellaneous snapshots collection
• Zhaojialou
• Dad's latest Glacier adventures
• Our family of cats
• Peggy's photography: HongKou
• Faces of Shanghai
• Around Shanghai
• Marisa's graduation
• Corri & Brendan's graduation
• Joey's CPA and engagement
• Studies in green
• Corri & Brendan's wedding
If you missed a past monthly update, you can catch up at our home page archive.
Best wishes for a happy and prosperous New Year!
Steve & Peggy
